Wednesday afternoon, on the eve of the Big Ten's inaugural media day, the conference unveiled its tournament trophy on Twitter. This piece of hardware will go to the winner of the league playoffs, held March 20-22 in St. Paul, MN's Xcel Energy Center:
Based on an early scan of the feedback I may be in the minority, but I like both of them, especially the regular season version, which screams "hockey" (think skate blades and a puck) at me more than it screams "trophy." And that's what I want.
While many consider the playoff trophy too boring and the regular season version too non-conventional, what exactly was the Big Ten supposed to do? It's a new conference for hockey. It's really a Catch-22 for the league. Go classic, and people will say it's boring and lacks tradition. Own your newness and take things avant garde, and people will make jokes. The Big Ten did both and therefore gets the worst of both worlds from critics.
Somehow generating something that's been contested for decades wasn't exactly on the table. And outside of that fact, the Big Ten tournament trophy isn't significantly different from the WCHA's MacNaughton Cup or the ECAC's Cleary Cup, if people are being honest with themselves. Tradition only comes with time, and provided that the Big Ten doesn't conduct a redesign every six years, in 50 years, these will carry every bit of the emotional capital of other conference trophies, even though it doesn't appear as if the Big Ten trophies will travel.
Disagree? That's fine. But you have to admit that it's better than this, eh?
Plans are moving forward for a new arena in Detroit that would replace Joe Louis Arena as the home of the NHL's Red Wings. Olympia Development (a company owned by Wings owners Mike and Marian Ilitch), the city's Downtown Development Authority and Wayne County announced a memorandum of understanding last Thursday, essentially a non-binding document indicating that all parties are interested in heading down the road together. Previous reports indicated that construction could begin by the end of the year (I assume everything would have to click perfectly for that to happen), with the project taking roughly two years to complete.
So what's this have to do with Penn State? Easy. The Big Ten has committed to holding its tournament in Detroit in 2015 and 2017, and at the moment, it seems conceivable that by the time 2017 rolls around, Joe Louis Arena - redundant if a new building goes up - will be rubble. A sparkling new facility could also influence the awarding of the Big Ten championships beyond 2017.
By the time, the next Three Stars hits, Eamon McAdam's rights will (probably/hopefully) be the property of an NHL team, through this coming Sunday's NHL Entry Draft. So as you might expect, he got a fair deal of exposure this week, including the nice profile by THN's Ryan Kennedy leading this entry. McAdam also penned his final blog post for The Pipeline Show while also appearing on the show on Saturday.
In addition to all of the usual hockey firsts for PSU's program, McAdam has also crushed out a couple unique to this day and age: 1. First NCAA-era Penn State player with a Wikipedia entry, and 2. First Penn State player, to the best of my knowledge, with a parody Twitter account (language advisory on that one).
From new Icers and Ice Lions alumnus Mike Broccolo:
My mom just informed me that one of her student's name was seven
The Seinfeld episode where George Costanza shared his preferred baby name (after New York Yankees legend Mickey Mantle's jersey number) originally aired on February 1, 1996. Therefore, "Seven" is more or less in play for anyone 17 years old or younger. So there you go.
While McAdam is the only Penn Stater more likely than not to be scooped up by the NHL on Sunday, guys like Mark Yanis, Mike Williamson and 2014 commit Bo Pellah have a chance at getting a late-round look. Here, Williamson gets a mention (literally just that) in an article listing Canadian Junior A products with draftability.
CHA rival RIT unveiled a large and mostly Canadian freshman class, then made a routine announcement super awks by retweeting this on their official team account:
As much as I complain about Penn State's ultra-buttoned up approach to things, it could be worse I guess.
Reed Linaker has continued to make the media rounds to share his unfortunate story. This latest news report (including video) comes from Dean Millard, who doubles as a co-host of The Pipeline Show.
Over a couple days last week, college hockey circles exploded with the news that two-time national championship coach George Gwozdecky (let go by Denver after this past season) interviewed for the vacant job at Alabama-Huntsville. Then they exploded again with the news that he withdrew from consideration.
Opinion nobody asked for: Gwozdecky has had a legendary career. However, I believe that much like athletes, coaching careers have a rise, peak and decline, and I also believe that Gwozdecky is more of a name than a great coach at this point. Still very good, of course, just not to the level of his reputation. Now, UAH could do worse than "a name" given what they've been through - and maybe the credibility coming from that name would have been a huge boost - but hopefully Gwoz passing on the job allows the Chargers to get a guy who ultimately becomes a name through his accomplishments in Alabama.
Former Ohio forward Tyler Pilmore, who just ended his outstanding career as a Bobcat in March, has signed with the ECHL's Toledo Walleye for 2013-2014. In 2012-2013 and following the conclusion of the ACHA season, Pilmore played eight games with the Walleye and the Wheeling Nailers.
While a Penn Stater will do even better than the ECHL soon enough, I have to admit that I'm a bit jealous, as (to the best of my memory, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) the last surviving Icers playing in professional hockey were Curtiss Patrick (who kicked around the minor leagues from 2004-2009) and Justin Depretis (2006-2009).
The work of former ACHA assistant Spiros Anastas helped Tomas Tatar and the Griffins to a title
I'm obviously a sucker for a good ACHA-to-the-show story, especially one with ties to Pennsylvania, and Grand Rapids winning the AHL title last week offered one in the form of Griffins assistant coach Spiros Anastas. Anastas, a Toronto native, played for Lebanon Valley College from 2006 through 2010, when the Dutchmen were an NCAA Division III program. He stepped directly from the ice to the bench in the middle of his senior season when LVC head coach Ted Russell abruptly resigned. Anastas stayed on as an assistant in 2010-2011, the program's successful (21-4-2) ACHA Division 1 debut following a 3-95-2 stretch over the last four DIII seasons (yikes). He then left to become a volunteer video coach at Western Michigan in 2011-2012 before moving on to the Griffins under head coach Jeff Blashill (who also hired him at WMU), where he's responsible for advance scouting and statistical analysis.
Anastas actually didn't go directly from Western Michigan to Grand Rapids, by the way. From August 23, 2012 until October 29, 2012, he was the general manager of the BCHL's Alberni Valley Bulldogs. On October 31, 2012, the Bulldogs acquired Bo Pellah from the Langley Rivermen. Either Anastas is a big fan of Pellah who started negotiations before taking the Griffins job, or he was standing in the way of the trade being finalized. Your call.
After one of the messiest coaching searches in college hockey history (fourth entry from the bottom), Alaska-Anchorage finally got their guy in Matt Thomas, who will join the Seawolves program after a long run as an ECHL coach. He also played for RIT back in the 1990s (when the Tigers were an NCAA Division III program) and served as an assistant at Maine from 2000-2002. I'm still not sure why anyone would want the UAA job, but regardless, best of luck to him.
In other Anchorage news, charges will not be pursued against the guy Thomas replaced, Dave Shyiak, over an alleged stick-swinging incident at a practice in 2011. So other than any blowups to come from discarded former athletic director Steve Cobb, it seems as if things might finally be getting back to semi-normal at Alaska's second-best hockey program.
Fired Maine coach Tim Whitehead, who spent 12 years in Orono (and therefore one with Thomas), will coach PSU commit A.J. Greer's prep school team. Nice pull for the KUA Wildcats.
The Women's Ice Hockey Club and head coach Patrick Fung pose in front of Kelly's Steakhouse in Boalsburg, the site of their postseason banquet, Saturday afternoon
On the occasion of Tommy Olczyk being elected captain once again for the 2013-2014 season, Ben Jones went one step beyond the usual "snip the press release" (guilty) with a quick feature. I'll always have room for that kind of initiative here.
A member of the ACHA Ice Lions on scholarship next season? Believe it.
Four years after skating for the first time, Neshaminy senior Ricky Lucas will be honored by the NHL Wednesday in Washington with a college scholarship.
Lucas, 18, is a goaltender on Neshaminy's ice hockey team. He said he would attend Penn State in the fall and plans to try out for the school's club hockey team.
Lucas got his start in hockey during his freshman year with the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, which offers the opportunity to play hockey to underprivileged youths.
The NHL/Thurgood Marshall College Fund scholarships are given to two college-bound students from the NHL's Hockey Is for Everyone youth development program.
The Women's Ice Hockey Club officially wrapped up their inaugural season on Saturday with an end-of-season banquet, which saw team MVP, Rookie of the Year and Player's Player awards given to goaltender Katie Vaughan, forward Devon Fisk and forward Carly Szyszko, respectively.
Two days before that, at the annual Club Sports Honors Reception, the WIHC was named most improved club sport of PSU's 78 programs.
Hey, just because it was already the most successful team debut in the history of Penn State hockey (and probably across all sports, although I don't know enough to make that statement definitively) doesn't mean it can't be enhanced further.
Best of the Rest
Left to right: Steve Rohlik (Ohio State), Mike Eaves (Wisconsin), Don Lucia (Minnesota), Red Berenson (Michigan), Guy Gadowsky (Penn State), Tom Anastos (Michigan State)
All six Big Ten coaches and the league championship trophy... nice. Steve Rohlik still looks like he's kind of stunned to be included, while Red Berenson may be about to beat the crap out of someone off camera.
The previous entry's photo came from the Big Ten meetings held last week at the conference headquarters in Chicago, where all sorts of things like scheduling, awards and overtime rules (5-on-5 or 4-on-4?) were discussed. Notably...
A source said the league expects to stage all its series between Friday and Sunday next season. There had been talk of some games being played on Thursday and/or Monday in order to accommodate TV, but that no longer appears to be the case, at least for 2013-14.
That move - if it comes to pass - is welcome news for fans who like going to Penn State games but live in, say, Ohio and can't really make it in during the week. Although it does leave the door open for the dreaded Friday-Sunday "work around basketball Saturday and make Kyle get an extra night in a hotel room" series.
The reason I said "basketball" but not "football" in the previous paragraph? According to the message boards on Minnesota site Gopher Puck Live, loosely citing head coach Don Lucia, no Big Ten conference games will take place before New Year's Day. While the idea seems a little crazy since there are 20 Big Ten games and 11 weekends between January 1, 2014 and March 20, 2014 when the Big Ten Tournament starts, it's certainly possible in a six-team league that won't start its playoffs until later than is customary.
Lady Icers alumna Abby Miller brought her blog out of hiatus to drop an opinion of and couter-proposal to the NHL's upcoming realignment. I have to admit, her idea makes a ton of sense in spite of the fact that my favorite team gets completely hosed by it (a fact that even draws an apology from Miller, which I appreciate).
Joe Battista's weekly column largely serves its usual purpose as a high-energy commercial for Pennsylvania and/or Penn State hockey - eight exclamation points and seven question marks this time around, not including the title - but as also tends to happen, there was some news buried in it:
We will also be working with the Big Ten to discuss hosting the new Big Ten Hockey conference’s playoffs in future years at Consol Energy Center.
Any hosting to be done by Pittsburgh's NHL arena won't take place for a while, as the conference has already committed to a St. Paul, MN/Detroit rotation through 2017.
Battista's column was also, apparently, a hit piece on (State of) Minnesota hockey, simply because he made the factual statement that the 2013 gold-medal-winning U.S. World Junior Championship team included more Pittsburgh natives than Minnesotans. Here are a couple replies I got on Twitter, first after shooting out the link to the column, then after tweeting Battista's GoPSUSports.com bio to show that he's not, in fact, a clown even if he's now hated in the Land of 10,000 lakes.
Someone's awfully sensitive about their state's declining market share in the hockey world. See, the problem for Minnesota Guy is that the more hockey grows, whether in the Sun Belt, Pennsylvania or anywhere else, the less his state matters in relative terms.
Someone who doesn't think Battista is a clown? Allison Bart at UPenn's student newspaper, who quoted him extensively in an outstanding article detailing the hill the Quakers are to climb if NCAA hockey, abandoned in 1978, is to return to University City, Philadelphia.
Bart also wrote a companion piece offering further detail on the last days of Penn's varsity program, which was greatly appreciated by my history geek side.
I suppose if you have to be knocked out of the ACHA National Tournament, you'd want it to be by the ACHA D2 coach of the year. For whatever little consolation that may offer, it's now true of the Ice Lions and Illinois State coach Brian Corley.
WCHB tabs Penn State's varsity entry as the number 12 college hockey story of the just-completed season with a write-up noting that blended with those wins over Wisconsin, Ohio State, Vermont and Michigan State were losses to DIII and ACHA programs Buffalo State, Arizona State and Neumann. Fair enough. Then again, maybe I'm falling into the DI snob trap - all that those "bad" losses proved to me is that there are tons of great hockey players and programs out there, and not all of them reside in NCAA DI. Speaking of the snob trap, the "establishment," in spite of everything, still continues to be somewhat dismissive of PSU's quick bounce to respectability (I mean, how dare a CLUB program be able to play REAL college hockey in its first year trying).
Overall, the Nittany Lions still have a long ways to go before their program is completely settled, but they showed that they should at least be competitive next year in the Big Ten. They'll likely end up losing more than they win next year, but it won't be much of a surprise if they see them win on any given night.
This year, Penn State had a winning record (3-2-0) against the Big Ten teams it played, including a win over Wisconsin during the Badgers' torrid close to the season. Going by the indicators typically utilized for amateur roster assessments, Penn State's talent level should be roughly on par with Ohio State and Michigan State next year. Penn State's coaching staff has more of a recent track record of success than either MSU and OSU. On those three things alone, I don't accept being labeled as some kind of scrappy, "tough to play against" upstart that might be able to win a game here or there against an unmotivated opponent in 2013-2014.
Am I predicting a conference championship, an NCAA tournament appearance or even a winning record? Of course not. I am, however, predicting that the Nittany Lions will have to pack white jerseys when heading to St. Paul at the end of the season because some less "settled" program will have finished lower in the standings.
...cited the steady decline of UAA hockey and claimed repeated efforts to reach out to the university's athletic department and hockey coaches have been "systematically met with callous indifference."
The former players seem just as concerned... with their egos.
Things reached a tipping point, [alumni association president Mark] Filipenko said, when UAA went looking for a new hockey coach. Both resolutions criticize Cobb for not involving alumni or anyone from the hockey community in the search for a coach to replace Dave Shyiak, who was fired last month after going 80-177-33 in eight seasons.
Penn State, of course, has been the beneficiary of UAA's "steady decline" in the form of transfers Justin Kirchhevel and Eric Scheid.
Here's a timely reminder of the fact that tournament passes for the first Big Ten men's hockey tournament, at St. Paul, MN's Xcel Energy Center March 20-22, 2014, go on sale today at 11:00 a.m. The tickets are available through Ticketmaster and range from $80-$160 (for five games). All six conference schools will participate, so if you're a Penn Stater, please buy 'em up so that there are at least ten non-Minnesota fans in the arena.
Keep writing about the Women's Ice Hockey Club and I'll keep putting them right here. Or in the first spot. Good to see publications with more than 50 views per article like the Collegian and Onward State give the ladies some well-deserved pub.
I admittedly dropped coverage of the ACHA Division 2 National Tournament after the Ice Lions were eliminated in the group stage, but just to complete the picture...
Michigan State rolled to a 6-3 victory over Grand Valley State University to once again win the ACHA Men's Division 2 National Championship. Jim Martin, MSU Head Coach won his 3rd Championship with a strong team performance. MSU led 5-0 and 6-1 before a gutsy GVSU club battled to close the final 6-3 gap.
Michigan State, along with fellow Great Midwest Hockey League (GMHL) member Grand Valley State, finished with their best performance to once more sit on top of the 181 team Division.
Forward #16 Anthony Casali from Michigan State was named the National Tournament Most Valuable Player.
The Spartans, who previously claimed titles in 2005 and 2007, defeated Utah State 6-2 in one semifinal, while GVSU took down Illinois State - which won Penn State's Pool C to earn advancement - 1-0 in the other.
Mary Kate Tonetti and PSU took down defending champ UW-Stout - twice - en route to second place
Speaking of ACHA nationals, DVDs of each game from the WIHC's second-place finish (as well as of the Ice Lions' three round robin games) are available through FastHockey.com. The price is a bit steep at $19.00 per game, unless considering the entertainment value. Two weeks removed from the emotion of the moment, I still consider the tournament to easily be one of the five greatest things I've witnessed involving Penn State hockey.
I can't lie: After the latest batch of shamelessness from the butthurt set - "Big Ten sucks" chants and "B1G MISTAKE" banners at the WCHA Final Five (won by future Big Ten school Wisconsin over the weekend, by the way) - I'm done. Done what, you ask? Done pretending like I care about any of this supposed destruction of college hockey Penn State brought about.
Well, okay, if you're associated with a program in the "new" WCHA after being in a major conference during 2012-2013, I do sincerely feel for you. If you're a North Dakota fan who cried endlessly about the horrible Big Ten while your school was working on forming its cash grab attempt of a conference with hand-picked opponents - what really destroyed the WCHA and the Final Five as we knew it, by the way, because...STAY AWAY BEMIDJI, YOU AREN'T COMMITTED ENOUGH TO HOCKEY - then you're a giant hypocrite and deserve no sympathy.
Okay, that was almost entirely tangental to the actual article, but oh well.
Congratulations to Minnesota, which won the NCAA Division I women's championship to cap an incredible 41-0-0 season. In the title game Sunday, the Gophs defeated Boston University - PSU assistant Gina Kearns' alma mater - 6-3. Previous to that, BU earned its way to the final with a 4-1 win over CHA champion Mercyhurst on Friday, while Minnesota beat Boston College 3-2 in overtime in the other semifinal.
The Gophers' NCAA Division I win also completes a sweep of DI collegiate hockey, as Minnesota's ACHA women's team won its national championship on March 10th, with a 2-0 result against Liberty.
The RIT women, who arguably became Penn State's biggest rival during the inaugural NCAA season, will play Clarkson in the not-nearly-as-novel-as-it-used-to-be doubleheader, while the men will battle Niagara.
It's worth noting that the AHL's Rochester Americans will also participate in what will be a ten-day celebration of hockey in Western-Central New York, which of course ties Terry Pegula to the whole thing.
Just to get this out of the way up front, no, a moving company is not the definitive word on the best hockey cities in the United States. But still, five were named. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia were two of them. And the blurbs under both of PA's major cities mentioned Penn State as part of the reason they made the list. I don't care if a moving company, Pitbull or the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development made the list, I'm still going to be impressed by that.
...wait, that's it? I already hate this offseason.
Yeah "Penn State Holds NCAA Attendance Mark" kind of caught my attention when this one came across.
In its first year as an NCAA program, Penn State actually set the mark for the highest-percentage of seats filled. Before moving over to the state-of-the-art 6,000-seat Pegula Ice Arena (above) next season, the Nittany Lions call Greenberg Ice Pavilion and its 1,400-seat capacity home. Despite the seating limitations, Penn State sold out every home game and averaged over 120% attendance.
In the NCAA records, PSU is given nine home games - two against AIC, Air Force and Alabama-Huntsville, and one against Buffalo State, Neumann and Robert Morris. Seven of the nine ended up as Ice Pavilion sellouts of 1,300 in a building that never has the same capacity listed in two different places. The Tuesday night Neumann game was just under a sellout at 1,071. The last one? The 5,389-person crowd in Wilkes-Barre against AIC on October 13th. Divide something like that against the Ice Pavilion's capacity (instead of counting Wilkes-Barre's 8,050 capacity for hockey for that game), and you end up with 128.1 percent capacity over the season.
There are plenty of reasons to be excited about the potential fan base for PSU hockey - that Wilkes-Barre game, as well as those in Hershey, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh chief among them. It seems kind of silly to pump ourselves over something like a falsely-calculated "attendance mark."
Guy Gadowsky's name comes up in this coach-of-the-year discussion - then is fairly quickly dismissed for vague reasons ("I don't know if it'll gain a lot of traction"). Why? Find me one person who, before the season started, thought Penn State would even be competitive with major-conference programs - I'm an unapologetic homer, and I didn't think that - let alone actually beat four of them. With all due respect to guys like Rand Pecknold and Bob Motzko, who have done amazing things this season, there's really no argument in my mind. People thought Penn State would be a whipping boy for years, perhaps forever. Penn State surged well past "whipping boy" in its first year.
2014 commit Bo Pellah doesn't know Bill Murray. But is really into Taylor Swift. If I didn't secretly (not anymore, eh?) plow through two TayTay albums on every single road trip, I'd say something about how horrible that is. Regardless, a quick and highly entertaining interview - I always love anything that shakes players out of the hockeybot mindset in public.
Hey look, you guys - Big Ten championship trophy. The conference isn't noted for commissioning quality designs, but I really like this one, as it looks like a bunch of skate blades and a puck. Kinda. Well done. Also, according to a photo tossed on Facebook by UNO message board MavPuck.com, we may have a Big Ten Tournament logo as well. Good times.
Allow me to be the last to tell you that legendary Boston University coach Jack Parker is retiring at the end of the year after 40 seasons, 894 wins (and still counting for now), three national championships, boatloads of NHLers (including Mike Grier, a nephew of PSU football legend Rosey Grier) and a bunch of other impressiveness. When I first got into college hockey, BU was my favorite NCAA program, and while it probably wasn't any longer by September 16, 2010 (the last day before PSU was in that category), I've always generally rooted for the Terriers except against a handful of schools, with Parker being a huge reason why.
There's been a lot written about Parker's "complicated" legacy in light of the last couple of years of off-ice issues. Kind of reminds me of another coach, different sport, more familiar to readers of a Penn State blog. I believe history, ultimately, will be kind to both, but we'll see.
Going to go take a shower after linking something written by Ryan Lambert. Be right back.
First off, congratulations to Minot State on the ACHA Division 1 title, as they beat Lindenwood 9-5 in the championship game in Bensenville, IL on Wednesday. The Beavers had developed a reputation as tournament flameout kings over the years, but I like their program, so I'm happy to see that one buried. Second off, "octant?" Never change, ACHA.
The three ACHA opponents of Penn State (Arizona State, Oklahoma and Ohio) all saw their seasons end in disappointment at nationals, with the eventual champs taking out both the Sooners (in overtime in the quarterfinals) and the Bobcats (in the semifinals). ASU fell to Lindenwood in the other semifinal. A team that beat Penn State this year wasn't even the second-best team in the ACHA, as things turned out. ACHA hockey is good hockey, people.
The NCAA Division III opponents of the Nittany Lions are also done with their seasons, by the way. Buffalo State wound up 13-12-2 overall with a loss to Oswego in the SUNYAC semifinals. Fredonia was 7-16-3 overall and lost to the Bengals in the SUNYAC quarterfinals (the two teams finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the league standings). Neumann was the best of the three at 19-6-3. The Knights won the ECAC West tournament with a 3-0 victory over Manhattanville but missed out on an NCAA tournament at-large bid, becoming one of those rare teams to end their season with a win.
Meanwhile, on the women's side, congratulations to Mercyhurst, which recovered from last season's blip (a tournament championship game loss to Robert Morris) to continue their quest to win everything ever in the CHA. MU topped Syracuse in the final on Saturday, after the Orange took out RIT (which ended Penn State's season, of course) 2-1 in overtime in the semifinals. Mercyhurst beat Robert Morris 2-1 in the other semifinal.
The Lakers were also the only one of Penn State's opponents this season to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament, and they'll open with Cornell on Saturday.
Went with Matt Mendelson for the photo, because Cara Mendelson is not an enemy you want to have
A couple of quick player profiles from the USHL franchise including one men's signee (Saar) and one women's team sibling (Mendelson). Toss in incoming RPI transfer Pat Koudys, and yeah, I'll admit that the Jacks are my favorite team in the league, at least right now.
Remember when Alabama-Huntsville played at the Ice Pavilion a month ago and head coach Kurt Kleinendorst let it slip that the Chargers were returning next year in one of his postgamers? Looks like that's off, thanks (probably) to the fact that the WCHA was able to accommodate the no-longer-independent school with a full conference schedule a year earlier than planned.
Speaking of UAH, March 5th was the 30th anniversary of an epic national club championship game between the Chargers and Penn State. Here's a fantastic look at it from the FoTYT down south including, for the first time that I've seen, a full box score of the game.
This news is a couple weeks old, but the Ice Zone in Boardman, OH, the site of the 2006 ACHA D1 Showcase and 2007 national championships, is closing in May. For whatever it may be worth, it hosted the Icers' last-ever ACHA championship game appearance, which capped a run of ten in a row as well. Somewhere, former Oakland forward Will McMahon, who scored four times and added an assist in the Grizzlies' 5-1 win over the Icers in that title game, is crying.
And finally... here, once more, are your ACHA Women's Division 2 national runners-up. Thanks again for the ride, guys.
Front row (left to right): Mandy Mortach, Ashton Schaffer, Mary Kate Tonetti, Nina Elia, Tara Soukup. Middle row (left to right): Allie Rothman, Katie Vaughan, Carly Szyszko, Devon Fisk, Jackie Saideh. Back row (left to right): Associate Head Coach Tom Vaughan, Taylor Nyman, Georgia Foulds, Elizabeth Denis, Sarah Eisenhut, Head Coach Patrick Fung.
The Big Ten has ended one of the worst-kept secrets since the league's sponsorship of hockey and has announced that the first four conference tournaments in history will rotate between the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN and Detroit's Joe Louis Arena. Specifically...
The inaugural Big Ten Men's Ice Hockey Tournament will be held March 20-22, 2014, at Xcel Energy Center. The tournament moves to Joe Louis Arena the following year and will be held March 19-21, 2015, and March 16-18, 2017, in Detroit. The 2016 event will return to Saint Paul and be held March 17-19. Tickets for the 2014 Big Ten Men's Ice Hockey Tournament in Saint Paul are expected to go on sale in the summer of 2013.
The tournament will feature all six teams - Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin - in a single-elimination format. Thursday's quarterfinals will feature the No. 3 seed facing the No. 6 seed and the No. 4 seed battling the No. 5 seed. The top two seeds will open tournament play in the Friday semifinals, with the No. 1 seed against either the No. 4 or 5 seed and the No. 2 seed facing the No. 3 or 6 seed. The championship game will be held on Saturday.
There's really not much more to say about it, so I won't. Congratulations to the Big Ten on making the tournament accessible to more than one fanbase at least half of the time.
As the headline states, the TV schedule for the NCAA tournament was recently released. Previously, the championship game was on ESPN with the semifinals on ESPN2. Now they're on ESPN2 and ESPNU, respectively, and NCAA hockey fans are upset. While I do understand that losing a bit of what you had before hurts, I submit that they need to watch a few games on FastHockey or UStream before they complain. Me? I'm still mindblown by the fact that Penn State hockey will be on "real" TV at some point.
A fascinating take on schools that would help grow college hockey - in the event that someone with $88 million shows up on their doorstep.
My list? Despite both cities previously hosting failed DI programs, I think outposts in Chicago and Philadelphia would do well today as large hockey-loving cities that don't have DI in the immediate area. I'd like to see UPenn back (here's a nice read on the history of Quakers NCAA hockey). Their rink is still there and not out of line capacity-wise with the current Ivy programs. I sincerely believe that Delaware (also near Philly) and Rhode Island could step into Atlantic Hockey right now with their current barns, although neither school can handle the year-to-year operating costs (UDel, in particular, is gashing programs).
If you want to stretch the "hockey footprint," I've also seen a ton of growth in some of the ACHA programs in the south, Alabama notable among them. However, I think everyone down there is a little frightened of Huntsville's situation, so it's going to take a lot (of $$$) for someone too far south or too far west to make a move.
Quick CHA update: Robert Morris ended Mercyhurst's death grip on every conference title ever with a 3-2 win over the Lakers in the league tournament's championship game. Brianna Delaney, who also scored in RMU's season-opening win over the Lady Icers, potted the eventual winner late in the second period.
The Colonials' win is a nice result from a PSU standpoint because it clearly establishes the quantity of ground to be made up before the women's team will compete for the CHA crown. And some of that territory has already been gained, thanks to mid-season additions Taylor Gross and Jess Desorcie as well as a nice looking early signing class highlighted by Emily Laurenzi, Celine Whitlinger, Sarah Wilkie, Shannon Yoxheimer and Jill Holdcroft.
Despite losing the CHA championship for the first time, Mercyhurst was still given an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament and will be the sole conference representative. The Lakers will open with top-seeded Wisconsin on Saturday. Because the conference does not have enough teams to receive an autobid, RMU gets to be the rare squad that ends its season with a win.
P.S. Assistant coach Gina Kearns' alma mater (Boston University) also made the NCAA tournament by winning the Hockey East championship in overtime against Providence. Just in case you don't want to root for the Evil Empire of Erie.
Andy Baggot continues to overkill the Big Ten tournament story long after I can honestly say that I stopped caring. Still, he has credibility on the issue, and I'm happy with this outcome:
While I linked Andrew Dzurita's attempt at projecting future PSU men's rosters once before, it's well done enough to get another run. Also, he's now linked to his articles about the players.
After seeing only sporadic action in the first month following his transfer to Division III Western New England from Penn State, Tim Carr worked his way into regular duty with a string of strong performances. Over the five appearances following his debut, he gave up seven goals in 268:43 - a 1.56 goals against average. While he then gave up five in a season-ending loss to Wentworth in the ECAC Northeast tournament last Wednesday, he still finished as the team's leader in GAA (2.49) and save percentage (.928). And hey, the coaches like Carr enough to start him in a win-or-begin-your-offseason game.
That's two Big Ten tournament formats, zero Big Ten tournaments actually played if you're keeping score.
The biggest change, though, isn't the "what," it's the "where": a to-be-determined neutral site.
[Associate Big Ten Commissioner Jennifer] Heppel declined to identify the neutral sites to be targeted, but multiple sources with knowledge of the discussion Monday confirmed the Big Ten will initially look to secure a rotation of facilities between Joe Louis Arena in Detroit and the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.
Those two arenas are currently home to the late rounds of the CCHA and WCHA tournaments but partially because of the Big Ten, that's changing. The CCHA will cease to exist after the 2012-2013 season, its members parceled off to the Big Ten, NCHC, Hockey East, and a new-look WCHA. The WCHA will still be around, but without heavy hitters Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin (among others) beginning in 2013-2014, it's unlikely to have the ability to command a major venue for its championship.
In fact, the conference shakeup was cited by Heppel as the reason for the switch.
"You can make decisions seven months ago and you have conference realignments and other things that have gone on. It changed the world the college hockey is living in."
Fair enough, but it's also likely that bluster from Barry Alvarez and his gang in Madison had something to do with it. Specifically, Wisconsin was worried about scheduling conflicts involved with the campus-site tournament that may have caused them to lose their status as hosts for some state high school tournaments (Ohio State also jumped in after the fact with similar concerns). It's probably worth noting that the Badgers were the only vote against the original plan when it was adopted.
The changes aren't official until approval by the Big Ten advisory council later this month, but that's considered to be a formality.
While an ideal answer for Penn Staters probably would have involved Pittsburgh as part of a broader rotation, it's a relief to know (depending on how much faith you place in "multiple sources with knowledge of the discussion," I suppose) that St. Paul will not be the sole site of the tournament. While I've never been to the Twin Cities, I've heard nothing but positives about the area, the hockey atmosphere there and the Xcel Energy Center itself. That's not really the point. The reality is that St. Paul is convenient to precisely two of the six teams in the conference, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The third-closest school, Michigan State, faces a 10+ hour drive. For Penn State, it's close to prohibitive unless you have the money to jet-set it (I don't, congratulations on your life if you do). Atlanta, Jacksonville, FL and Memphis, TN are all closer to State College than St. Paul. Or, if you prefer Canada, Saint John, New Brunswick and Rimouski, Quebec (home of Sidney Crosby's junior team) are also more convenient.
The Gopher loyalists are already in full-on propaganda mode, insisting that the rotation will melt away once the conference observes that there's more money to be made in St. Paul than Detroit.
...however unlike Detroit (above), Minnesota does not have any Stanley Cup banners. Well, to be fair, the Cup was awarded on Minnesota's home ice once...oh right, the Penguins were the ones winning it.
I won't make a prediction as to how that all turns out other than to say that the difference, if any, won't be significant enough to abandon common sense to chase a few bucks (especially when we're talking about some of the richest athletic programs in college sports, not schools that depend on a likely tournament gate cut of a couple hundred thousand dollars for survival). Let's hope not, anyway.
Penn State is still over a year from its first NCAA hockey game and all six Big Ten hockey schools are still over two from their first conference games, but we already know how that first season will end, thanks to a recent vote of the Big Ten's hockey-playing institutions.
The Big Ten plans to utilize a two-week postseason format that begins with the four lowest seeds meeting in a best-of-three series at the home of the highest seed. The survivors advance to face the top two seeds at the home of the No. 1 seed.
Sounds pretty simple to me. I mean, how many ways are there to conduct a playoff involving six teams?
Well, at least three. That's the number of choices each member school had been given for the playoff format vote. One option was to take place entirely at a neutral site, while another involved best-of-three series at the higher seed's rink all the way through the tournament (including the semifinals and final, which separates it from the winning option and its single-elimination final four at one site). While it's unknown how each school voted, Wisconsin was very publicly in favor of the plan that nobody else liked.
UW opted for the one that had all six teams playing a single-elimination format at a neutral site, preferably the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. The model mimics the one currently used by the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.
But a college hockey source said UW was the only member to vote for that proposal.
I think the Big Ten (the other five schools, anyway) made the right call on this one. While we know that schools like Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan have well-established hockey fanbases that will travel, it remains to be seen if the other three schools will pull enough weight to fill a gargantuan arena like Chicago's United Center or St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center. College hockey already takes something of a credibility hit during the conference tournaments and the NCAA regional tournaments when half-empty arenas are the norm, so why add to that?
Your 2011 CCHA championship game, ladies and gentlemen.
The winning plan is also much easier from a logistical standpoint, as most teams will only have one weekend of travel - zero if you're the regular season champ or a third or fourth seed who gets upset in round one. The Wisconsin-is-homesick-already plan demands all teams travel for a weekend and the other losing plan takes up three weekends and involves the most travel of all.
That said, there was still a part of me pulling for the neutral site proposal. After all, Penn State's now likely going to have to try to win four games in hostile environments for the first couple tournaments. And as someone who likes to hit the road to watch my team, tickets for what's sure to be a high-demand Big Ten final four in a small venue like Michigan's Yost Ice Arena (capacity 6637) may prove cost prohibitive on the secondary market. Better start building up my Nittany Lion Club points and hope for a decent-sized allotment, I suppose.
Regardless, it's great to see yet another step in the process of joining the NCAA hockey fraternity behind us.
